For Immediate Release
Apr 7, 2008 4:56 PM
The April 7 edition of the Daily News featured a story about polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) found in caulk samples taken from window sills and door frames at eight city schools out of nine the newspaper had tested at random. While the story noted that PCBs are common in caulking in 266 city public schools built or renovated in the 1960s and 70s, it said six of the nine schools it tested had PCB levels that exceed federal safety guidelines. City officials said the caulking poses no threat as long as it is not disturbed.
UFT fact sheet on PCBs in caulk
“While we know there are few studies regarding long-term exposure to PCBs, the United Federation of Teachers prefers to take a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach to such matters when dealing with kids and staff. We’re grateful to the Daily News for raising this issue and putting a spotlight on the problem.
We are concerned about any health and safety condition affecting students and staff, and we take the presence of PCBs in schools very seriously. As soon as we learned about test results showing elevated levels of PCBs in caulking certain schools we reached out to the Department of Education to have independent consultants conduct environmental sampling in them. We also reached out to other agencies on the city, state and federal levels to seek their guidance in assessing the safety of the school environments, and we have urged them to develop a coordinated response in implementing a uniform PCB standard that everyone follows.
The prudent course of action is to make sure there is no route of exposure to PCBs, but we do not want to see school communities endangered or disrupted through a hasty assessment and removal of PCB building materials. We urge all of the relevant agencies to adhere to a coordinated inspection, monitoring, removal and replacement program. In the meantime, we also are calling on the DOE to follow asbestos abatement protocols in addressing the PCB issue.”